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So whenever this operating system comes out circa june 2009, how does the upgrade process work? Do you completely reformat the mac partition, and then install the 10.6 as a fresh install or is there a way to install it without having to back up all your data?

Actually all 3 install methods I've seen to work just fine. It's just up to you which one you feel more comfortable. Personally I like to to a backup to a portable hard drive then upgrade and install. Saves mucking around after the install. And if there is an error it's easy to reboot up from the backup and go again. Mind you in saying that I've never needed to use the backup. it's just there, just in case.

Clone your Macintosh HD to an external drive using Superduper. Do an "erase and install" then when you first run Snow Leopard use the external drive copy to import back all your files and settings. I used this method to upgrade to Leopard and it was painless. It reinstalled all my applications and even had the same Finder windows open as I had had when I cloned Tiger. All I had to do extra was re-enter a couple of product keys for things like Photoshop CS2.

But don't get too excited. I rushed to upgrade to Leopard and had to put up with a few irritations, which were subsequently fixed in 10.5.1 or 10.5.2

Unlike in my Windows days there is nothing that particularly needs fixing about my current OS so I am quite happy to wait a bit for the next big thing to settle down before upgrading.